[Swing Swang]

I've just come off the skype to my father, as usual the conversation turned to how his neighbour cultivates his land 'the wrong way' and the interesting discussions that ensue!

His neighbour plants cara spuds (Alentejo region of Portugal).

Never chits (thinks the old man is strange for doing so).

Cuts off each 'eye' with about 1 cubic cm of peel (and returns the peeled 'core' to the kitchen for human consumption).

Lays each embryonic 'eye' on the cultivated surface of his (dry) land.

Pulls over a layer of dry soil with an enxada/azada/chillingham hoe and in so doing forms a slight ridge over the eyes and an irrigation channel next to each row.

Irrigates from his bore hole every few days (actually I think that this is an excellent idea as  later on in the season he can irrigate whilst leaving all of the foliage dry).

Gets about 1 hectare of plot planted up from a 20kg bag of seed potatoes!!!

Has been doing the same for over 40 years.

Gets as least as big a crop as my Dad (who chits and trenches and plants whole seed potatoes as many of us do).

So there's more than one way to skin a rabbit (although is won't stop their friendly banter).

SS

[Trillium]

This is not so unusual. Years back before the communist regime fell, Poland was starving and many people were writing to acquaintances in America asking them to send any potato peelings they had so that the peels could then be planted for crops. Apparently it worked and a lot of people didn't starve. Now, many of the peel varieties are doing well over there.

Forgot to mention - the reason for the peels was so that regular envelopes would not be stopped or confiscated as would parcels.

[Swing Swang]

Trillium - I'd heard that people grew spuds from peelings too, but I presumed that they'd been molly-coddled, ie planted in individual pots under glass, then transplanted. I never realised that they were so robust.

SS

[zazen999]

I tried using peelings last year; and put some into root trainers.

When I went to plant out a few weeks later; with about 3-4 inches of growth on top of the root trainer; I had baby potatoes [of salad size] already formed in the root trainer.

Somewhere on the GYO forum, photos exist of this - but I've changed computers or I'd post some on here.

Fascinating!!!

[Trillium]

It's the gardener who mollycoddles what is actually a very hardy crop. Just today I was out in my veg garden having a look for any deep rooted weeds I could fork out when I came across 2 purple potatoes I'd missed. Odd part was that they were poking out of the ground and still as nice as when I missed them at harvest last fall. A few potatoes I missed which were sitting on top of the grass are totally mushed by frost and cold, so a bit of soil around the spud is protection enough.

As for the mailed potato peels, by the time they reached Poland, they would have scabbed over enough to plant directly, and by skilled people who have always grown all their own food except when it was confiscated from them. I wouldn't advocate newbies trying this for main cropping but it would make an interesting experiment if you have a bit of space to try it. I'd be interested in any results 

[solway cropper]

That's why I never put any kind of potato debris in the compost. They seem to be able to grow from a single cell if you give them chance